When the Orion Crew Capsule orbits the Moon there will be no one on board. But the mission will mark a key step in bringing humans back to Earth’s dusty sidekick.
Later this year I will spend time with former NASA astronaut instructors, before receiving high-G training, crew resource management training and spacesuit training, among other skills.
John Glenn would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. Today’s space program is a giant leap more inclusive than when he made his pioneering orbit of the Earth in 1962.
NASA hasn’t updated its spacesuits since 1974, when only men were eligible to be astronauts. But when it heads to the Moon in the coming years, its new spacesuits should come in women’s sizes too.
Going to the bathroom is much more complicated in space without any gravity. To solve this problem of tricky orbital potty breaks, NASA builds special toilets that work without gravity.
The new era of space exploration is characterized by an emphasis on diversity and international cooperation. But there’s a lot of work to do before there’s gender equality in STEM fields and at NASA.
Senior Lecturer in Space Research & Law / In training as Suborbital Spaceflight PoSSUM Astronaut Candidate Graduate, Swinburne University of Technology